Who Owns Sonos And Where Are The Speakers Made?

Sonos, the sound system maker, has a huge roster of wireless speakers, soundbars, and even a pair of headphones. The brand has grown since entering the market in 2005 with the ZP100 (which still sees support), and so have its offerings. Sonos has no parent company, but is a public company backed by shareholders, with Tom Conrad appointed as CEO, as of this writing. Prior to him, it was Patrick Spence, who took over from founder John MacFarlane. It holds a $1.7 billion market cap, with its investors including a variety of stock portfolio companies, and BlackRock being notable for its stake in the company. BlackRock, in particular, holds 14.82% of stock in the speaker company.

As for where its speakers are made, it might not surprise you to know that the company was originally heavily based in China. Many companies, including Sony TVs, base manufacturing out of China due to the cost differences in labor and the fact that most components are manufactured there, too. However, the US-China trade deficit originally played a part in some companies, like Sonos, shifting production out of the country.

In a comment to The Verge in 2019, Sonos confirmed that it was "diversifying production" after a "one-time hit" from imposed tariffs. It now has manufacturing set up in Malaysia, which it began to ramp up in 2021, just as pandemic-related restrictions were being wound down. It's reported that the then Chief Financial Officer said, "It has taken longer than we thought it would, but we are still very much on track with our Malaysia strategy."

After having to raise its prices in 2019 to some online backlash, the idea was to ensure that it didn't get impacted by any future Chinese-US feuding. Reporting out of the 2025 Trump administration tariffs from The Verge and Bloomberg indicates that a supply chain based in Vietnam was also opened. The current CFO, Saori Casey, said, "You may recall we underwent a significant effort to diversify our supply chain a few years ago, which resulted in a manufacturing of nearly all of our U.S.-bound products shifting to Malaysia and Vietnam."

This mitigation didn't have much of an effect, as price hikes hit the product line due to Malaysia and Vietnam being hit by tariffs. It's not fully known if Sonos has pulled entirely out of China. Diversification of the supply chain doesn't mean they cut everything and run, but it's very possible that parts of the manufacturing process are still done there. There's also little to no information on which models are made where.